I'm gonna stir things up with this one!
According to a survey by confused.com a lot of prestigious cars are involved in a disproportionate numbers of accidents - see cars.uk.msn.com/news/car_news_article.aspx?cp-docu...1 . In this "top ten" you will notice Alfa, BMW and Audi are well represented.
The Managing Director of confused.com said, "...luxury and executive cars have among the highest accident rates because they are often used for long distance travel, with busy, stressed and tired executives behind the wheel."
Do I hear the sound of violins? Doesn't it basically mean these cars (as many of us have always suspected) are driven by plonkers who should know better? - Discuss!
Notice also the "bottom ten" of cars involved in the least number of accidents; surprise, surprise - the least street cred equals the fewest accidents!
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1. I think it means that expensive cars are driven by people with other things on their minds
2. I further think it means that they are being driven by people, some of whom, have no idea how to drive a performance car
3. Also the cars are capable of exceeding the speed limit by a lot and often do.
Combination of these 3 factorsleads to more accidents than one might expect!
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It's a bit of a stupid survey as novas and cinquecentos at the bottom haven't been made for ages. Unless they report accidents vs number of cars sold and miles driven then it is a bunch of useless statistics that have little meaning. If someone changes from a nova to a bmw does their accident risk suddenly change? I have borrowed a 156 and I haven't noticed much increase in accident potential.... sloping nose does lead to a greater risk of parking incidents though!
teabelly
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Another factor would be that the larger expensive cars are usually not driven by their owners. The bulk of the middle and upmarket cars are driven by people who have been supplied with a vehicle by their employers or are self employed and able to write off the major costs of ownership to the taxman. The smalll cars have been paid for out of earnings (real money) and damage plus wear and tear comes out of their own pockets.
Happy Motoring with fully depreciated motor vehicles owing the driver little or nothing. Phil I
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I've just bought a 3 year old Jag S-Type with 91,000 miles on the clock. I'll take that as a typical "exec" car, even though it's not on the list. I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a Ford Fiesta that's done that kind of mileage. Probably about 30-40K typical.
Thus, *all other things being equal*, you'd probably expect to have a higher likelihood of the Jag having had an accident in the past three years.
This is a case of what Darrell Huff refers to in his excellent book, "How to lie with Statistict" as the semi-attached figure.
V
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Looks to me as if its people who have claimed for damage to their car.
Look at the list - the top 10 are all expensive cars which, presumably, if you whacked into a wall you wouldnt pop down the scrappy and fix it yourself.
Whereas the least 10 claiming cars are all cheap bangers where you'd simply get a different bumper and fix it yourself - not to mention the fact they are normally driven by students, less well off people etc etc who are more concious that if they claim, they lose their NCB.
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Only one BMW !!? Makes a mockery on my theory of ham fisted fwd pilots suddenly realising that their rough and ready ways won't be tolarated by a proper RWD car then !
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MichaelR,
I think you've hit the nail on the head........... further to that, the exec car owner will want their car to be 'right' and not fixed by the local 'bodge shop or 'average joe'.
If someone clonks mine, it will be put right whatever it takes, with a manufacturer approved outfit to maintain the paint warranty & standards commensurate to that marque....which will be expensive, which will mean ins co............. if someone clonks a Nova it may well be the case the owner can't afford to have it done by the insurance co. or it is well uneconomic to do so....... so no statistic.
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I've just bought a 3 year old Jag S-Type with 91,000 miles on the clock. I'll take that as a typical "exec" car, even though it's not on the list.
Although the government has done its best to kill off the company car through punitive taxation, I would still expect the bulk of the fleet mileage on the road to be the sales reps, engineers, project managers etc in "standard issue" fleet cars such as Mondeos, Vectras, Passats and the like.
I think attitude has a lot to do with it. In my experience, a small but significant minority of the kind of people who are given BMW's and Mercedes as company cars often have egos the size of houses, and genuinely consider themselves a cut above everyone else, both on the road and off it. Status is everything to a lot of these people, whether that's in the company car park, or being at the front of a queue on the road, whatever it takes to do it.
Cheers
DP
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size of houses
How big a house then, deteched, semi, cottage, executive post-modern cloned red brick horror ???? :-)
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mine is the equivalent of a derelict mud hut........ now where did i leave the Veyron's keys
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>>How big a house then
I've got the biggest stone tent you ever saw.
1) Don't buy an old house.
2) If you do, don't buy one which is virtually derelict
3) If you do, don't live in it while you do it up
4) If you do, shoot yourself. I should have done.
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>I've got the biggest stone tent you ever saw.
Been there, done that, On 1,2 & 3. When I moved out 32 years later I cried. Was in the area couple of years ago could not believe my eyes when I saw the scaffolding and skips arrayed nearly cried again.
Takes all sorts :-((
Phil I
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